King carries District 88

By SHANNA SISSOM | Herald Managing Editor

Published 5:57 pm, Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Photo: Doug McDonough/Plainview Herald

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Byron Hutto ponders his choices before casting a vote in the primary runoff election shortly before noon Tuesday in the Ollie Liner Center. Both Republicans and Democrats returned to the polls to decide races that were sent into the runoff following the regular primary on May 29. Early voting was heavy in the runoff, although election-day balloting appeared relatively light locally early in the day. less

Byron Hutto ponders his choices before casting a vote in the primary runoff election shortly before noon Tuesday in the Ollie Liner Center. Both Republicans and Democrats returned to the polls to decide races ... more

Photo: Doug McDonough/Plainview Herald

King carries District 88

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Ken King of Canadian unseated Rep. Jim Landtroop of Plainview in Tuesday’s runoff, in a hard-fought race that ended with a districtwide tally of 7,541- 6,426 (54% to 46%).

“It feels great, it’s been a long campaign,” King said of the newly-remapped District 88 race. “We won and have support districtwide.”

While King’s support in the primary was heavy in the northern part of the district, which extends from three counties on the Oklahoma border to the southwest corner of the South Plains, his performance improved in several counties previously favoring Landtroop.

“I think you can look by the counties and how votes went, I’ve already united the north and south,” King said. “We are all rural Texans with common goals.”

King garnered more votes than Landtroop in Briscoe, Castro and Yoakum counties, all areas where Landtroop previously outperformed him.

Still, Landtroop attributed his defeat to a north-south trend.

“You look at the numbers, it was kind of a north versus south battle and the north outperformed,” Landtroop said. “But ultimately, we trust in the Lord, to see what the Lord has for us now, and enjoy family. Life goes on.”

In other area races, Castro County saw a close runoff in the county judicial race to replace retiring Judge William Saba, where Carol Gerber received 359 votes to Tom Taylor’s 356.

Then in Lamb County, a race between cousins resulted in a win for Cory DeBerry with 225 votes, compared to Darrell DeBerry’s 187.

At 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Texas House District 68 race was still undecided with Trent Knight holding a 52%-48% lead over Drew Springer. With 120 of 151 precincts reporting, Knight was outpolling Springer 7,741 votes to 6,426.